Can the world catch China in the rare earths race?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Control of critical minerals is becoming a source of geopolitical tension. They are essential to modern technology and industries around the world, and China currently dominates the mining and processing industry.
As demand grows, governments in the United States and elsewhere are looking at ways to reduce their reliance on Chinese supply chains. That means investing in new mines and processing facilities even though they are expensive and environmentally toxic.
Ultimately, the US and EU have a goal of diversifying the control of these lucrative elements.
This week on The Inquiry, Tanya Beckett explores whether the rest of the world can catch up with China in the race for rare earths.
Contributors: Julie Michelle Klinger, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US Sophia Kalanzakos, global distinguished professor of environmental studies and public policy in the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayan scholars programme at NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE Kalim Siddiqui, international economist, UK Dr Patrick Schröder, senior research fellow in the Environment and Society Centre at Chatham House, UK
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Matt Toulson Researcher: Evie Yabsley Editor: Tom Bigwood Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Management: Phoebe Lomas and Liam Morrey
(Photo: Trucks transporting minded materials. Credit: Las Vegas Review-Journal/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.4 | Welcome to The Inquiry with me, Tanya Beckett from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:10.9 | One question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:18.8 | Amid US President Trump's battle over trade, bid to control Greenland and even takeover Canada, |
| 0:26.9 | one theme underlies much of the rhetoric. |
| 0:30.2 | That is, who controls access to the minerals essential for the manufacture of modern technology. |
| 0:36.6 | And the problem for Donald Trump is that the country with by far the leading edge is not America, but China. |
| 0:44.4 | Demand for these natural resources, which include nickel, lithium and copper, is growing at an exponential rate. |
| 0:52.0 | About a third of this group of critical minerals carry the somewhat mystical label, |
| 0:57.4 | Rare Earths, elements that possess extraordinary physical properties, |
| 1:01.9 | making them central to innovations in defence, green energy, and the electronics driving our future. |
| 1:09.0 | Without a secure supply of these elements, countries risk leaving themselves dangerously exposed. |
| 1:16.5 | This week on the inquiry, we're asking, |
| 1:19.6 | can the rest of the world catch up with China in the race for rare earths? |
| 1:28.3 | Part 1, anything but rare. |
| 1:35.3 | It's 1949, California. |
| 1:39.3 | Three prospectors are on the hunt for precious radioactive resources in the Mojave Desert. |
| 1:46.8 | The start of the Cold War has prompted the US and Europe to build arsenals of nuclear weapons |
| 1:52.4 | that could ward off the threat from the Soviet Union. And this requires uranium. |
| 1:58.9 | The three prospectors do discover uranium, |
| 2:02.2 | but they also stumble upon something else |
| 2:04.6 | that turns out to be much more valuable for the future. |
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